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TODAY'S OTHER NEWS

Government backs one of UK's largest selective licensing schemes outside London

The government has given the go ahead to what will be one of the UK’s largest selective licensing scheme outside of London.

Only yesterday Letting Agent Today reported that Nottingham was getting tough with unauthorised To Let boards; now it seems the council also has the powers to introduce mandatory licenses for landlords of around 31,000 private rental units within its boundaries. 

This constitutes around 90 per cent of all privately rented homes within the city.

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Money raised through the scheme will help to cover the cost and the council says it hopes to be able to introduce the scheme from summer this year. 

“Having a Selective License will allow landlords to demonstrate that they provide good accommodation for tenants. The cost of licensing will be reduced for responsible landlords who gain Nottingham Standard Accreditation via DASH or Unipol. Tenants will also be able to check on both licensing and accreditation which will help to drive up private rented standards” explains councillor Jane Urquhart, the city council’s portfolio holder for Planning, Housing and Heritage. 

The proposed cost of the licence is to be confirmed and is subject to final approval by the council’s executive board. 

However the authority says it is likely to be less than £2 per week per property for accredited landlords and no more than £3 a week for non-accredited landlords.

* An earlier version of this story suggested the Nottingham city council scheme may be the largest in the UK outside London. Our thanks to London property Licensing for alerting us to the fact that the largest beyond the capital is Liverpool's.  

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    Only £2 per week.....bargain! So, £16 MILLION into the council housing budget to help cover its inability to perform its obligations under Part 1 of the housing act! All at the expense of the 95% responsible landlords whilst the rogues and criminals sit there laughing at the entire market. Perhaps a national private rented sector tax would be easier to swallow.

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    31,000 properties at £2 per week is M£16? I don't think so.
    £2 X 52 X 31,000 = £3,224,000. Your calculator is busted and I suggest that you check your figures before opening mouth and inserting foot.

     
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    Paul it's £3.2m a year, the scheme runs for 5 years, making £16.12m over the whole span of the licensing scheme.

     
  • Andrew Hill

    All of this extra licensing and costs, such as paid training via the council to earn a discount... I think its rather unfair. This won't affect the rogue landlords or the agents like Spicerhart who are happy to manage unlicensed HMOs let along manage unlicensed properties or Foxtons who can't prove their properties meet safety standards.

    All this is going to do is further price individual, compliant landlords out of the PRS which may cause rental shortages, increasing rental demand and pushing rents up... Rents will increase to absorb the cost of selective licencing too which means the only people who lose out as a result of rogue landlords are the tenants in properties owned by good landlords. Well Done, Nottingham!

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    These scheme is beneficial for the government as well as landlords. However it might also upset majority of landlords in this business. Being a top rated letting agents in Nottingham we have got them covered.

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    It’s not beneficial to anyone, the council has the powers to deal with rouge landlords but never used it. All this is doing is increasing rents. I have raised all my properties by £25 pcm to cover the costs and extra admin. My rents have not increased for 2 years again the I wouldn’t have increased rents this year except for the licensing

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